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Monday, 18 August 2014

Get locked in a room and try to escape in 60 minutes: Go to Hinthunt

The
minute I looked at the website for this place, it had me hooked. It sounded like
a TV show – somewhere between The Crystal Maze and Big Brother: 60 minutes to
climb a mountain of puzzles and mysteries in a tiny room. The goal is simple
yet challenging: get out in time! Else … you could be trapped inside forever!

HintHunt,
in London, is for teams of 3-5 people. We decided to book it as a family treat
for our son’s 15th birthday – him, me and his dad (the minimum age
is 9 so his sister was too young to come with us). Team members truly live and breathe in union
for an hour, the website continued. Mmm? Should be an interesting test of our
family dynamics.

We
arrived at the premises, which frankly, were a bit pokey and rather uninspiring. “Clever,” said my son, the ever-cynical teenager, “How to make a lot of money out of a very
small space.” Another team of five people, work colleagues on a team-building afternoon,
were also in the lobby. One of them had done it before (in a different room). “Any
tips?” we asked. “Look EVERYWHERE,” he said. “Be suspicious of EVERY SINGLE THING.”

A
young woman appeared and gave us an introductory talk. There are two rooms here,
she said. One is an old-fashioned detective’s office (that was going to be ours) and
the other a Japanese spa room (the other team’s). The challenge was entirely mental, not physical, she explained. No need to try and tunnel our way out. A big screen on the
wall would count down the minutes (very Crystal Maze!) which would also bleep
and feed us extra hints if they felt we needed them. Yes, she said with a smirk,
they would be watching our every move (Big Brother indeed!).

Then
she told us this shocking bit of news:

The
success rate for escape from our room was only 50%. For the other room, it was even
worse. Only 45%. Crikey. This wasn’t going to be easy. We puffed out our
chests.

It
would be unfair on HintHunt to tell you what happened ‘inside’ and it’d spoil
it for you if you go there. Let’s just say it's totally absorbing, insanely intense, and there are some very nifty surprises
along the way. I also loved that the person sending us messages through the screen started calling me ‘mum’ and saying things like, “You should listen to what your son just said!”.

All
three of us reverted to our instinctive states under the pressure. My husband took
the academic approach, writing everything down on the white board provided. My son was kinaesthetic, taking things apart, lying upside down
under desks, climbing on chairs. And I was the overseer, keeping the big picture in mind, stopping us going off track. Though I did find my body in some odd positions at
times.

So,
did we succeed? No. We ran out of time, but when the man came in to let us out (yes, he did!),
he told us that another minute or two and we would have cracked it. He showed us the
final piece in the puzzle that would have opened the door.

We
left, exhausted, our brains hurting, our bodies still quivering from the
adrenaline. In a good way.

Hello!

I'm Claire Potter, author of the Little Blighters books for parents and freelance writer for The Guardian. I am always on the look out for mini-adventures and (good) mischief I can get up to with my children. The quirkier, the better! I hope you find inspiration here for refreshingly different days out, and in, or just ideas to add a bit of quirkle to everyday life with your children.

Take a peek at my books ...

and ...

"When you grow up and have children of your own, do please remember something important: A stodgy parent is no fun at all. What a child wants and deserves is a parent who is SPARKY." &nbsp (Roald Dahl)